I have nothing but good things to say about Alarm Relay. I have had them for about a year now. Whenever we accidently set off the alarm they call right away. One time we tripped it while leaving the house. It went off, several minutes later they were calling my cell phone to inform me that my alarm had gone off and police had been disptached. Lastly the ultimate test, a relative moved in and put in the diuress code instead of the disarm code. 2 seconds later the police were calling. Not that I was thrilled that the police were calling me with a diruess alarm, but that is not alarm relay's fault. Alarm relay promptly notified the police of the diruess alarm and never contacted me. They acted exactly as they should have. The best part....the police never showed up. I just told them it was an accident, the dispatcher told me to call me alarm company and give them my passcode and have alarm relay call them and confirm I gave them the passcode. Wonderful had someone actually had a gun to my head.Summary: Alarm relay rocks! My police department is questionable

I think there have been quite a few posts on this subject but I was trying to get some updated information to finally decide between these two vendors. Based on the posts by several experts, I zeroed in on these two companies and wanted some help in deciding between the two - (I attn'd security monitor only because he/she had the most responses on this subject)

1) As far as monitoring itself is concerned, I understand taht Alarm Relay is a monitoring center...so I can get my own equipment and hook it up to theirs and they provide the monitoring. So far, I have seen excellent reviews about AlarmRelay monitoring.Nextalarm claims to use two UL certified monitoring stations (General Monitoring Services U ID: 892912-001 and Amcest UL ID: S2299). I could not find much info on these specific monitoring stations but overall I have seen no bad reviews about the Alarm monitoring through Nextalarm. So, from the monitoring and response standpoint, is it fair to say that both companies are equally good? I know I have a closer access AlarmRelay since they are actually doing the monitoring but as long as the actual monitoring service is good on both sides..I am trying to understand if there is anything else to worry about?

2) I do not have a landline. Alarmrelay offered me the GSM Cellular backup option for no additional charge but I pay-as-I-go for minutes used. Any ideas how many minutes/month are actually exhausted as part of this cellular monitoring. I am not familiar with how often the CS polls the unit (if that even happens) or if the cellular network is used only to report any alarms (in which case minutes used may not be very high). In effect, I wanted to be prepared for how much to spend per month for cellular minutes usage and not be surprised by huge ongoing bills.

Nextalarm has the broadband adapter option (via broadband internet) and while there seems to be a consensus that internet may not be a ideal/failproof mode of security monitoring, is it not better than cellular (especially GSM..since most GSM carriers are getting rid of old 2G networks and moving on to 3G..and I am not sure if the wireless units are capable of newer cellular technologies).Nextalarm offers cellular backup but charges $15/month extra with me having to pay for minutes usage as well.

Assuming that the monitoring service from both companies is good...I am tending towards the broadband internet option considering my situation. I have a townhome and am looking for basic security for peace of mind. I am glad I have two good options (compared to the exorbitant costs charged by ADT and Broadway)..but am concerned if I am overlooking anything. Is either of these companies too bad a deal to be even worth considering?

Hi - I have a question related to Nextalarm and cellular backup. Recently there have a been a rash of burglaries in my town, 6 house in 4 months. In each case the cable and phone line were cut. My Nextalarm system utilizes the ABN adapter to monitor, in an effort to protect against a line cut I investigated the Uplink cellular device as a possible back up solution. A bit of background on the uplink device, the device when in backup mode monitors the line voltage from the phone line, in the event of voltage loss (line cut) the uplink device takes over. I have determined that the Uplink device cannot be used as backup to the ABN adapter, since during a line cut of phone and cable, the internet connection is lost (ABN adapter cannot communicate alarm condition) however the ABN adapter will continue to provide a valid voltage to the uplink device, and a switchover will never occur. Would you agree with the assumption or am I missing something?

That has always been one of the main issues why the alarm industry isn't keen on 'add-on' that emulate (pretend) line voltage for IP monitoring. In the attempt to fool the POTS line into believing there is phone service, it also fools the system even when no communications exist. They prefer to bypass the POTS setup and go direct so any backup that requires the phone line to be out before activating will get its trigger from another source and not some artificial line voltage that may be present even when the communications path is not.

I know a lot of people get upset with the pros when they raise a red flag on some of these innovated ways of doing things. Remember, pros are seldom concern with if it will work just because it will work; they are always concern with what happens when it doesnít work. I wonder how many people have a similar setup and never even thought about what happens when they donít have IP communications.

There is no way for you to connect your Uplink to the "standard" ABN. You would be better using a cellular device that does not monitor line voltage and relies on a trigger direct from an alarm panel output.

You can use the programmable outputs or the bell relay to trigger the Uplink. Remember that both the ABN and the Uplink will be triggered for every alarm, so your Monitoring Company will get duplicate alarms.

I think the only way around this is to trigger the Uplink from a programmable output on "Failure to Communicate". Someone else might be able to suggest other workarounds.

I've been using NextAlarm since 2005 with my ancient PowerMax (the OLD one that they no longer sell). Their service has always been fast. We have the occasional false alarm due to not remembering that the system is armed, and we get a call within a minute. Maybe a minute and a half. We're grandfathered in at some very old rate ($11.95 paid annually, I think) but if we had to do it again, their web interface would still win me over.

We're moving now and switching to a DSC Alexor system. Since Nextalarm doesn't support Connect24, we're looking for another provider. Alarm Relay is one company we're considering. $8.95 / month + $12 for cellular monitoring + a $35 setup fee + a $25 setup fee for web access. We also saw alarm-monitoring.net for $15 / month + a $29 setup fee, but no web access.

The cheerleading for Alarm Relay is a little off-putting. It's one thing to like a company, but it's another thing entirely to post a long-winded rant about brake jobs () when someone so much as mentions a competitor.

I have a Abbra Professional Alarm system. I have been using NextAlarm for 14 months and the response has been great. They respond to alarm signals in less than a minute. The communications between the ABN box and NextAlarm is tested at intervals set up by the user. I have subito.it them check my connection every 15 minutes and email me if the internet connection is lost. Logging into the NextAlarm web site allows for checking alarm history and entering user information and zones. I recently extended my contract with them for 2 additional years. Also if your Abbra Alarm panel has a problem or needs upgrading to support a new option while under the 12 month Visonic warranty, they will replace it at no charge. You do not need to send it to Visonic for repair. How many alarm companies or stores would do that?